Tour Day 5 - Walking to a World War I landmark

Our coach took us to the heights of the Vosges above the village of Lapoutroie at around 900m. The walk took us to La Tête des Faux at 1208m, a focus of some of the fighting between France and Germany in in 1914-1916. Alsace-Lorraine  had been ceded to Prussia in 1870, so in 1914 220,000 were called up to the German army. The French advance into Alsace began on 7 August 1914. The Germans occupied  La Tête des Faux in August, but it was captured by the French in December and remained in French control for the rest of the war. The Germans had built a concrete fortress of shelters and workshops with electricity, water, phones and a funicular. There is now a French war cemetery.

We came down the mountain by a route unexpected by the coach, so our 9 km walk felt more like 11.5km, before being picked up for lunch in Kaysersberg. On this and previous walks I acquired a lunchtime beer thirst, and the 50cl glass was welcome. This is a village where we have previously stayed for a week, so it was good to renew the acquaintance with a stroll through the village, although the many storks we saw then (August 2010) were now away in some other country.

After lunch we coached to Ammerschwihr to taste the wines of Les Caves JB Adam, though by now we were feeling a little jaded.
The tour concluded for us with dinner in Colmar at 2* Michelin restaurant JYs. We had set ourselves a closing time of 9pm, which meant bidding farewell after the pre-dessert amuse bouches. Hardy souls in the remainder of the party were to move on to a tasting of sweet wines and eaux-de-vie at the hotel.
Our train left Colmar at 5.54 am for Basel, and two more  connections brought us to Geneva Airport for the trip home.